Page 8 of The Hanging Dolls
“How do you do it?” Aiden had asked, twirling a pen between his long fingers.
“Do what?” she asked, arching one eyebrow.
“Mold all that gunk into your brain so easily.”
“Gunk?”
“The violence, Storm. The violence you see every day.” His eyes sparkled with fascination.
Zoe scoffed. “Compartmentalization. Thought psychologists knew that concept.”
Aiden’s eyes softened, his mouth set in a grim line as he scribbled in his notepad.
Harborwood was a small town, nestled between two Native American Reservations, Hoh and Quinault tribes, just a stone’s throw from La Push beach. Zoe followed Scott’s car as he led the way to the playground where Lily was last seen. The car glided smoothly on vast country roads with the Pacific Ocean stretching into infinity on one side. A thick layer of fog lingered on the horizon; the path was sprinkled with gas stations andcasinos, sprawling farmlands with warehouses and billboards advertising services that Zoe deemed to be fraudulent.
Lose 100 pounds in 10 days!Zoe snickered.
She had never stayed in one place for long. Even when she was a child, Rachel was always packing them up and moving them on every few years. Zoe didn’t understand the loyalty people felt to their surroundings—how could a home be sacred if it was just bricks and mortar? What joy was there in getting coffee from the same place every day? Her roots were deeply entrenched in Gina and memories of Rachel. People, not places.
“Promise me. Promise me if anything happens, you will forget about it and move on.”
Zoe swallowed hard. It was one promise she had no intention of keeping.
The car twisted into muddier, bumpier roads, weaving through blocks of gray, bleak apartment buildings. Zoe tried to commit the town to memory, but it was clear they were far from the core. Scott found a parking spot and Zoe parked right behind him.
As she got out of the car, a shiver rolled through her. She was used to the wind, having worked out of the Chicago office for years before transferring to Washington. But while Chicago winds were cutting and brutal, blowing her hair in a tangled rope and looking to stir chaos, the ocean breeze had a silent power to it. It seeped through her pores and chilled her to the bone.
A slow killer.
“You should buy some appropriate clothes.” Scott noted her shudder. “I thought you’d been in Washington for a while.”
She fell into step next to him. “Lakemore. Heard of it?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, anyone who follows football has. Were you on the Sharks case?”
“No. But I worked with the people who cracked that one. Only there for the summer though. It was warm.”
“Summers are getting drier.”
They came to the edge of the empty playground enclosed by a barbed fence. It was misting lightly, and the ominous gray skies overhead threatened more showers. The park looked deserted like it hadn’t been used in years—rusty swing sets, lopsided seesaws, dulled slides and a faded merry-go-round. The sandbox was a bed of scattered leaves and dirt.
“When was the last time this was inspected?” Zoe wondered out loud.
“It’s a low-income area but everything’s solid,” Scott said defensively. “How long have you and Dr. Wesley known each other?”
“We worked closely on a case five years ago and since then our paths have crossed here and there.” She gave a nonchalant shrug but a sharp thread of unease pulled through her.
Zoe cleared her throat and that memory. She had looked at the surrounding area beforehand so that she was familiar. Behind the playground was a labyrinth of ancient trees. It was fall—other than the evergreens, the rest of the trees had a feathery barrenness to them. The vegetation on the ground was sparse and spiny, looking half-dead. In the distance, the mountain range was visible with snowy tips.
She pulled out a map from her backpack. She couldn’t rely on Google Maps as her cell phone didn’t always get reception out here. “So tell me where the ice cream truck was parked.”
Scott pinpointed a spot on the map, only ten feet from where they were standing.
Zoe looked around. “And one minute Lily was next to her and the next she disappeared?”
“It was a sunny day so a lot of kids and parents were around.”
“Playgrounds attract pedophiles too.”
